ArmInfo.Due to the results of last year's war and the existence of a trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, the Armenian authorities simply cannot avoid talking about unblocking the borders, establishing diplomatic relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan. Director of the Caucasus Institute Alexander Iskandaryan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
"It is clear that in the current situation Turkey and Azerbaijan are trying to force Armenia to virtually unilateral concessions. Since, by and large, there is nothing to offer Yerevan in exchange. The situation is very difficult and with its statements the government seeks to instill all this in society. Turks and Azerbaijanis need a safe corridor through the territory of Armenia. In response, Armenia proposes to open all communications, as provided by the very agreement of November 9, "he said.
According to Iskandaryan, Armenia is still holding on, however, in its current state, it is objectively incapable of defending its own interests at the negotiating table with Turkey and Azerbaijan. Moreover, the political scientist is convinced that the process of demarcation and delimitation of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in fact, has nothing to do with either demarcation or delimitation.
"Of course, I do not deny that the trilateral commission with the participation of the deputy prime ministers of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan is working towards unblocking communications, but the efficiency of all these actions is a big question. Especially in the conditions of war lost by Artsakh and Armenia and the subsequent sharp drop of the level of security and image of our country, "he said.
Noting that the building of the state and statehood is carried out through a difficult and long path, Iskandaryan stressed that 30 years of Armenia's independence in historical projection is an extremely modest period for this. In his opinion, building a state requires generations of hard work. However, in his opinion, there is no other way. Accordingly, it is necessary to continue to follow it and build statehood further. Against this background, Turkey and Azerbaijan, according to Iskandaryan, also failed to achieve their goals, in particular, the resolution of the Karabakh problem in their understanding. Since in the territory of Azerbaijan, in reality, in a significantly reduced size, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, again in their understanding, is home to more than 100 thousand people not controlled by Baku.
"Accordingly, nothing ended with the 44-day war. Azerbaijan continues to develop its army, buy weapons, interact with the Turkish army, conduct joint military exercises with Turkey. And today Aliyev is actually creating a small Turkish army, and thousands of Azerbaijani soldiers are undergoing retraining. At the same time, it is not possible to unleash another large-scale war by Azerbaijan right now. But, in principle, this very prospect exists today and, by the way, has always existed, "Iskandaryan summed up.